


The Man in the Box

by Lenny9987



Series: Gaps in Canon [9]
Category: Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Book 2: Dragonfly in Amber, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 04:21:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5771086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenny9987/pseuds/Lenny9987
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More Outlander than Doctor Who but there is a slight crossover aspect. Part of my Gaps in Canon series. Set during Dragonfly in Amber.</p><p>After listening to and rejecting Claire's story, Brianna has another explanation for how her mother came up with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Man in the Box

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted fic from Tumblr.
> 
> "lianaofrome said: I am a Whovian, and he’s my favourite Companion, so, Claire, in the 1968 Inverness watching Jamie McCrimmon on Doctor Who."

Claire could hear Brianna’s raised voice from what she liked to think of as the manse’s family room. She still wasn’t talking to her after the revelations of a few evening earlier though Roger assured Claire he had a plan to bring Bree around. Well, Claire had a plan too but it was still a few days away from Beltane and she was uncertain what impact Roger’s determination to stop Geillis Duncan from passing through the stones might have on his own existence. She was fairly certain that Geillis wouldn’t be swayed - if they could find her in time. Still, a back up plan wouldn’t hurt.

The ruckus was growing as Brianna’s frustration with Roger escalated.

Claire decided it was time to intervene - if nothing else, her mere presence would likely render Brianna silent or send her from the room. 

“I’m telling you she made it up and this proves it!” Brianna was yelling, pointing at the television. 

“ _You’ve_  never even seen the show before,” Roger pointed out to Brianna. “What makes ye so sure she has?”

“Look at it! Look at the premise! There are too many coincidences.” Despite the fact that Roger was taller than Brianna, she’d drawn herself up to her full height and gave the impression of towering over him. 

“Where are there too many coincidences?” Claire asked to announce her presence. 

Roger pressed his lips together, his eyes darting back and forth between Brianna and her mother. 

Brianna shrank a little under her mother’s unexpected entrance. Her face remained frozen for a moment - reddened by her anger and frustration - but Claire knew that she was debating whether or not to give up on remaining silent.

Claire raised her eyebrows in anticipation. 

“Fine,” Brianna fumed. She stood aside so Claire could see the television. “Does any of this _sound familiar_? That man there,” she pointed, “His name is _Jamie_  and he’s an eighteenth century highlander.”

“What is this show?” Claire asked, confused. 

“Like you don’t know. It’s called Doctor Who and it’s about a _time traveler_  and his companions. That’s right, and guess where they found _Jamie_? The Battle of Culloden - isn’t that a funny coincidence? Oh, and last but not least, the actor who plays _Jamie_ is a man called _Frazer_ Hines. So why don’t you just admit it? You made it all up. What I want to know is _why_? Why would you do that to me? Why would you-” Brianna stopped abruptly as Claire burst out laughing. 

She watched the suited man with dark hair and a recorder in one hand as he walked around an impressive console with the kilted Scot a few steps behind him. 

“What - Why are you laughing?” Brianna finally burst out in the face of Claire’s surprising reaction.

“They travel in time?” Claire managed to gasp. “How?”

“That… that thing they’re in. It’s a time machine,” Brianna explained, her anger dissipating and turning to concern as Claire was forced to sit rubbing at a cramp in her side. 

“It’s also a space ship,” Roger added. Brianna shot him a glare but he moved to be sure Claire was all right. 

“I’m fine… I’m fine,” she insisted. “It’s just… It really does make me look crazy, doesn’t it? But Lord do I wish it had been in - is that a police box? That looks like a far more pleasant way to travel than the stones.”

“It’s bigger on the inside,” Roger pointed out. 

“You’re not helping,” Brianna said, finally addressing him. 

“Neither are you,” he countered. “Yer looking for any excuse not to believe the truth and it’s… understandable, given what it all changes for ye.”

The laughter was finally passing and Claire sat up straighter in her seat. The highlander on the television caught her eye again and she stopped listening to Roger’s attempts to placate Brianna who refused to be convinced - stubborn Fraser. He was darker than Jamie and not quite as tall or broad though still impressive in his highland costume - for that’s what it was, a costume. Brianna had said that the character had been plucked from Culloden - saved. If only…

 

* * *

 

Roger had just settled Claire on the sofa. She was still unconscious and Brianna was hovering over her, worrying, guilt evident in each movement. 

He moved to take her shaking hand and pulled her reluctantly from the room. 

“She’ll be fine,” he assured her. “There’s something I wanted to show ye - something I started to look for when yer mother first told us the story that I thought would convince ye - though I dinna suppose ye need more convincing than what ye saw tonight. I’d have pulled it out and shown it to ye the day ye tried to argue about yer mother getting the idea from that television show but they hadna sent it to me yet.” He reached for an envelope that lay on top of a book on a nearby table and handed it to Brianna.

She swallowed and pulled out a folded piece of paper with an image copied from some old text. She recognized her mother’s signature first - Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp - and ran her thumb over the familiar handwriting. Beside it was scrawled another name - James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser. 

“It’s spelled differently,” she noted. She was still rather shell shocked from the events on the hill and the realization of the truth was still sinking in.

“What are you talking about?” Roger asked, looking at the page.

“His name - Fraser. It’s spelled differently from the show.” Such a little detail but she’d clung to that idea of where her mother had gotten her story from that seeing the small discrepancy made it easier to let it go, to accept the truth.

Roger shook his head and wrapped a sympathetic arm around her, letting her rest her head against him shoulder for a moment before suggesting they go check on her mother once more. 

Brianna turned and headed in first. Roger reached for the book the envelope had rested on. One revelation at a time. 


End file.
